Tuesday, November 02, 2004

The Final Tally

Well, now that it is all said and done, I've voted for:

4 Repulbicans
4 Democrats
1 Green Party Guy
6 Libertarians
4 Non Partistans (several of them you had no choice)

1 Tax increase
1 Tax decrease

I hope you've all gone out and voted!

The general principle I use is:

-> If a candidate has something they make their main campaign promise that I strongly agree with, I vote for them.

-> If a candidate has something they make their main campaign promise that I strongly disagree with, I vote AGAINST them. (In this case, I vote for whatever opponent is most likely to win - as is the case, for instance, with Kerry).

--> If don't particularly like one candidate or the other (of the Rep and Demo) then I vote Libertarian. (This is the case when neither mainstream candidate is making a big issue out of something I care about. The Libertarian problably won't win, but at least I'm making a stand by siding with a cause that I pretty much agree with, namely, "get the Government out of our lives thank you very much.")

--> The one case where I voted for Green Party it was becuase both the Republican and Democrat candidates were boring, and the Libertarian was a complete nut-case, so I voted green.

Thank God we live in a country where we are free to vote for any candidate of any party.

God Bless America!

Basil


Monday, November 01, 2004

Why am I going to vote for?

I have decided that my goal for the day is to figure out who I am going to vote for.

I have been very much against the current president George Bush, and have long ago decided to vote for Kerry as a protest vote. (Normally I'd vote for a Libertarian if I didn't think my vote really mattered, but in this case I really want to vote Bush out of office.)

Well, lately I've been swayed by things I've read. Isn't abortion an important enough issue to vote for Bush instead of Kerry?

Well, I also discovered the other day that George Bush is my 8th cousin. (My family is really into geneologies and stuff.)

Does that sway me?

There was a romantic article on the web about a young man who George Bush prayed for him when he told the president his mother was sick.

Shouldn't I want a man of faith?

Well, I still stand firmly against Bush for various Bush-led agendas and their implications:
-invading Iraq,
-his own personal interest in oil,
-the whole hiding the truth from the public about WMD issue,
(I do not think, and nobody can convince me, that invading other counters makes you safer back here at home. Nope, the bad guy always eventually catches up with you. If you piss people off in this world, it will come back to haunt you. Enough said.)
-the Bush-led compromise of American's civil liberties in the interest of "protecting us from terrorist" (the fact that law-inforcement agencies can now ignore "due process of law" - something our ancestors died for, one of the main reasons they founded this country - if the government claims it believes there is a terrorist thread.)
(that last one in my book is almost justification for civil war, no less booting the fascist president who brought it into being)


Anyway, all this time, however, I really haven't had any particular liking for Kerry. But today I stumbled across a couple of things.

1) Kerry voted for the "Daschle amendment" something that banned certain types of abortions! (hurray for Kerry!) you can read about that here:
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/155/story_15523_1.html He also says he stands by his vote.


2) Kerry is a Catholic and seems devoted to his faith:
http://www.democrats.org/values/

Anyway, that's my 2 cents about the Bush-Kerry question.

I'll be posting some more on other candidates, but to give you a glimpse:

* I'm voting for Rossi (GOP) for governor. (The Gregior campaign has been full of lies from what I've been able to discover.)

* I'm voting for Jay Enslee (Democrat) for Senator (He's been a fine senator the past term and has tried hard to work toward the preservation of our civil liberties in the very matter that I mention above.)

* I will probably cast my typical Libertarian vote for other positions where I can't decide between the lesser of two GOP- Democrat evils.

Regards,
Basil